Video Shows Confession Of Post-Katrina Vigilante

Man Admits Shooting Looters In Algiers Point

The WDSU I-Team has obtained exclusive new video and information on the men who claim to have set up vigilante patrols in Algiers Point in the days after Hurricane Katrina.

After the storm hit in August 2005, Algiers Point was not flooded. Trees were down and power was out, but the area was largely unscathed.

Cathy Carmack never evacuated. She stayed in her home on Belleville Street the entire time.

"It was horrific, to me it was," said Carmack.

Carmack said that making matters worse was the local militia that set up shop to defend the area.

"You hear gun shots, you see them running down Belleville Street with their rifles and guns after somebody, it was like 24/7 patrol by them because there wasn't any army or police or anything," said Carmack.

One of the men who Carmack said patrolled the point was Paul Gleason, her neighbor who spoke to two police officers from Pennsylvania 12 days after the storm hit.

The interview was captured on home video obtained by the I-Team.

"Did you have any problems with looters," asked an officer.

"Not anymore," said Gleason.

"Not anymore?"

"They're all dead," said Gleason.

The officer asked, "What happened?"

"We shot them," said Gleason.

"How many did you shoot?

"Thirty-eight."

"Thirty-eight people? What did you do with the bodies?"

"We gave them to the Coast Guard," said Gleason.

Gleason told his story with a cup of red wine in one hand and riding a tractor from Blaine Kern's Mardi Gras World.

Istvan Balogh and Michael Orsini are the two police officers from Pennsylvania who came to New Orleans to help provide security after the storm and interviewed Gleason.

"I got a sense he wanted to tell someone his adventure -- this is how hard it was. The emotion he was talking with was, 'Live or die, and I could do what I could do,'" Orsini said.

"We tried to shoot to put them down. We didn't try to shoot to kill. We killed a number of them," said Gleason on tape in September 2005.

Orsini asked, "How many did you kill?"

"I don't know, who cares? What the (expletive) does it matter? They chose to die, they chose to commit suicide," said Gleason."They opened up on us, so we fired back."

Donnell Herrington said he was in Algiers Point a few days after the storm when a vigilante fired at him with a shotgun.

"That makes me sick to my stomach just hearing that guy talk about how many people they shot and killed," said Herrington.

Herrington still has the scars from a gunshot wound to the back.

"We was just walking through the neighborhood," said Herrington.

Herrington said he was not looting or causing any problems.

"I just feel that was an opportunity for them to do just what they did for their own personal reasons," said Herrington.

Herrington couldn't say for sure if Gleason was the man who shot him.

"The only thing I remember him saying is a bunch of racial slurs," said Herrington.

After being shot, Herrington went for help. He ended up at West Jefferson Medical Center.

"Most of the people who stayed behind all felt the same way -- they will protect their property with any force necessary," said Balogh.

Carmack points to yard signs made by Gleason.

"He had big board signs that you'll be shot if you cross this path and things like that," said Carmack.

So WDSU asked her: Could her neighbor, Paul Gleason, kill?

"If he was drunk, yeah. I hate to say that, but yeah. That's just me personally. But I do," said Carmack.

Gleason's ex-wife confirmed to WDSU that Gleason is shown in the video tape. She told WDSU he was deported back to the United Kingdom shortly after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. She did not know exactly where Gleason is now.

His ex-wife said she does not believe Gleason killed 38 people after the storm.

New Orleans police chose not to comment on this story.

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